GLOVES OFF: The boastful Jets, dubbed “outlaws” by guard Matt Slauson, had their defense swarming Chargers running back Ryan Mathews on Sunday. (N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg)
More than ever, they are The Team America Loves to Hate, and more than ever, the Jets are The Team That Loves To Be Hated.
Now that Rex Ryan has abandoned plans to be more Bill Walsh 49ers and less Rex Ryan Jets, now that there is no longer an identity crisis, the Jets once again puff out their chests, proud that they are taking on the true personality of their head coach.
“I’d say we’re the outlaws in the NFL,” left guard Matt Slauson told The Post. “We’re the Bad Boys. Everybody wants to come in and beat us. Everyone plays us a little bit tougher, just because I think everybody hates us a little bit, because we do boast, we do predict wins.
“So I think everybody has a strong dislike for us.”
Bring on the hate.
“It kind of forces us to have to play great,” Slauson said.
Ryan looked at Mark Sanchez and saw an elite quarterback. He looked at Plaxico Burress and saw a Big Blue 17 during the Super Bowl XLII playoff run. He looked at Derrick Mason and saw a birth certificate that read 1984 instead of 1974. He looked at Gang Green and saw the 2000 Ravens and his father’s ’85 Bears.
Maybe, with Nick Mangold missing in Oakland and Baltimore, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. All that matters now is there is still time for the Rex Ryan Jets as we have come to know them — and they have come to know themselves — to win the division and host an AFC Championship Game. Beat the Bills and Patriots immediately after the bye and never look back.
“I think maybe I got caught up in maybe being enamored with the type of personnel we had,” Ryan said yesterday.
The Jets are not a machine like the Aaron Rodgers Packers are, nor are they a nuclear juggernaut like the Drew Brees Saints. No more trying to be something you are not.
Because you are not Sugar Ray Robinson, you are Jake LaMotta. You are not Muhammad Ali, you are Smokin’ Joe Frazier. You are not Sugar Ray Leonard, you are Roberto Duran.
This is the Fight Club. A nasty, defiant, bar-room brawler of a team that takes sadistic delight in beating you by beating you up, 60-minute men who are more Rocky Balboa than Apollo Creed.
“We got a bunch of fighters,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “When we have success, it’s guys that put the ego to the side and do whatever it takes to win football games. We’re not the flashy type of football team; we’re a team that’s going to outwork you and out-physical you and just keep comin’ for 60 minutes.
“That’s how we win football games. We’re not necessarily the team that’s going to go and throw up 45 points. For us to be successful, it’s gonna be a fight every week. We’re a team that’s gonna be in a lot of close games, so you need to learn how to win those, and the last couple of years we have.”
This by no means is the perfect team. And in a quarterback-driven league, you better have something in your arsenal aside from the Ground and Pound.
“But our formula has been to run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, get [the defense to creep] up and then you toss it over their head,” Slauson said. “It’s been working forever.”
Shonn Greene running like a crazed Brahma bull makes Sanchez a play-action threat. The quarterback’s growing rapport with Burress will make Santonio Holmes and Dustin Keller more dangerous. Ryan is by no means the perfect coach. But his insertions of skill players Jeremy Kerley and Joe McKnight, and linebackers Aaron Maybin and Josh Mauga, have added speed and quickness to the offense, defense and special teams. If the real Jets stood up against the Chargers, better late than never.
“I feel like over the first six weeks a lot of people have been doubting our team’s toughness, our team’s physicality, and I think we’ve been slowly getting back to that, and we really showed it [Sunday],” Slauson said. “We have to commit to just playing nasty football, and that’s the kind of football Rex likes.”
Nasty football has its distinctive sights and sounds.
“You’d be hearing a lot of pads crunching, you’d be seeing Shonn explode through the line and light up a safety like he did twice [Sunday],” Slauson said. “That’s the kind of football we’re used to here, and that’s the kind of football we have to commit to every week.”
So the Patriots will see a different team than the one they saw in New England?
“Absolutely,” Slauson said.